Wow, this is a fascinating read as a (relatively) new Canadian!
We moved to rural-ish Nova Scotia (1.25 hours from the Halifax) 4 years ago, and one of the reasons we picked our town is that it had a hospital in it. To my knowledge, it has never closed it's ER due to lack of staff, but many other ERs in the province have. I've gone a few times. Most times (I typically go early AM) I haven't had much of a wait (in and out in less than 2 hours) but one time I went with my daughter and we left after 2 hours because I didn't think she'd get in. There was a combo of a couple of nasty viruses going around, plus she didn't have a fever during triage, so I figured we were at the bottom of the list.
We have a family doctor, who is part of a group. It took us 3 years to get her, but she is very easy to see. In reading this thread, I realize how rare that is! I can typically see her within a few days, and certainly within a week or so. One reason is that in addition to "regular" appointments, she does some really early ones (between 6:30 and 8) and those are typically easy to get (and fit well into my schedule). I've gone to see her a few times in the last year, and it's always been quick and easy.
Clinics in our area are basically non-functional. We tried using them before we had our family doctor, but you'd have to call immediately when they opened (@ 8 AM) and they'd be full for the day by 8:15 AM, and the line would be busy the whole time, so getting through was a lottery. I used Maple (which was free for folks without a family doctor) a few times, but even there we'd often have to wait an hour or two. As someone who works from home on the computer that was fine, but for my wife and daughter it wasn't very useful.
Referrals have taken a really long time. My daughter has had acid reflux off and on (fortunately now off) and was supposed to see a GI doc but that hasn't happened and it's been over 1.5 years. I've had a similar wait for a colonoscopy.
Honestly, I feel like healthcare is the one negative that I'd cite from our move from the US. I appreciate not having insurance dependent on my job, though. I do wonder, though, if at some point we'll relocate for better access. One thing we've talked about is getting an apartment somewhere in the US where we'd use some combination of medicare (once we're 65) and / or a membership-based clinic. We're fortunate in that we paid enough into the US system that we'll be medicare eligible.